How to use your email sequence

You have your emails. This page shows you how to get them working, so that every new subscriber gets one email a day, starting the day they sign up.

You don't need to be technical. Go one step at a time, and check things off as you go.

What's in your download

You can also copy each email's subject, preview text and body straight from the review screen with the copy buttons.

Which email platform should I use?

If you don't have one yet, use Systeme.io. It has a free plan, and it puts your sign-up page, your email list and your automatic emails in one place, so there's less to connect. See the Systeme.io guide.

Already using Kit, MailerLite or ActiveCampaign? Stay with it. There's a guide for each. (If you're on ActiveCampaign's Starter plan, note its limit of 5 actions per automation: the ActiveCampaign guide explains.)

Step 1: Turn your lead magnet into a file people can download

Your lead magnet is the free thing people get for signing up. Its text is in lead-magnet.md and in funnel.docx.

1. Open funnel.docx in Word or Google Docs.
2. Copy the lead magnet section into a new document. Tidy the layout if you like.
3. Save it as a PDF. In Word, use File, Save As and pick PDF. In Google Docs, use File, Download, PDF Document.
4. Put the PDF somewhere online and copy its link. Each platform guide shows the options your email platform gives you. A file-sharing link (for example from Google Drive, set so anyone with the link can view) also works.

Keep that link handy. You need it in Step 3.

Step 2: Build your sign-up page

Open optin-page.md. It has the words for your sign-up page (also called an opt-in page or landing page).

Your email platform builds the page; you paste the words in. Your platform guide walks you through it. Ask for first name and email address on the form, so your emails can greet people by name.

Step 3: Replace the placeholders

Your emails contain a few markers in double curly brackets. Each one has to be swapped for something real before you send.

First-name tags for the common platforms

Use your editor's find-and-replace if it has one, or search the document for {{ so you don't miss any. Then send yourself a test, or sign up on your own page, and check that no curly brackets are left.

What if someone signs up without a first name? Their greeting would read "Hi ," which looks odd. Two fixes: make the first-name field required on your form, or use a fallback word such as "there". Kit and MailerLite both support fallbacks, shown in their guides.

Step 4: Set up the automation (one email a day)

This is the part that sends your emails for you. Every platform does it slightly differently, but the idea is the same:

1. The trigger: someone signs up on your form.
2. Email 1 goes out right away (day 1).
3. Wait 1 day, then email 2. Wait 1 day, then email 3. And so on, to the last email.

Put each email in in order of its day number. Your platform guide shows you exactly where to click.

Important: the waits go between the emails. If you forget them, some platforms send every email at once.

When it's set up, sign up on your own page with your own email address. Check that email 1 arrives, that your name appears, and that the lead magnet link works. Then check again the next day for email 2.

Emails marked "needs review"

Every email we write goes through a list of checks. If an email still fails a check after it has been rewritten, we don't hide it: we mark it so you can fix it.

You'll recognize one because:

• its files end in -NEEDS-REVIEW (for example day-04-NEEDS-REVIEW.txt),
• its row in emails.csv says NEEDS REVIEW in the status column, and
• in funnel.docx it starts with a note in red.

The note lists what the checks found. For each one:

1. Read the note and the email.
2. Fix the problem in the email, or delete that email from your sequence. If you delete one, the waits still need to add up to one email a day.
3. Delete the warning note itself before you paste the email into your platform. It is for you, not your subscribers.

Make it sound like you

The emails are built from your answers, but you know your voice best. Before you switch the sequence on:

• Read each email out loud. If a sentence sounds like something you'd never say, change it.
• Keep the facts true. Every personal story came from your interview answers. If you change a detail, make sure it's still what happened.
• Don't add promises. No claims about results, income or earnings that you can't stand behind. Stick to what the product does.
• Edit on the review screen if you can. When you edit an email there, you can apply the same kinds of changes to the emails you haven't reviewed yet ("apply my changes to the rest"). It saves you making the same fix 30 times.

Why you keep emailing after the sequence ends

Your sequence is a strong start, but it ends. If your subscribers then hear nothing from you, they forget who you are. When you finally email again, many won't recognize your name, and some will mark you as spam.

So keep in touch:

• Send a regular email, even a short one, on a schedule you can keep. Once a week is a sensible place to start.
• Use the same voice as your sequence: a story or an observation, one useful lesson, and a link.
• Add the 25-email follow-up if you have it. It carries on from day 6 to day 30 in the same style.

The affiliate disclosure line

If you told us the product is someone else's and you earn a commission (an affiliate product), every email that contains your product link has this line, right after the first paragraph with the link in it:

Just so you know: I earn a commission if you buy through my link, at no extra cost to you.

Why it's there. Your readers have a right to know when you are paid for a recommendation.

• In the US, the Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides say that when there is a connection between the person recommending a product and the seller that readers wouldn't expect, such as being paid, it "must be disclosed clearly and conspicuously" (16 CFR 255.5). The FTC's own question-and-answer page for affiliates says: "The closer the disclosure is to your recommendation, the better", and that a "buy now" button or the words "affiliate link" on their own aren't enough (FTC: Endorsement Guides, what people are asking).
• In the UK, rule 2.1 of the CAP Code says: "Marketing communications must be obviously identifiable as such." Rule 2.3 adds that they "must make clear their commercial intent, if that is not apparent from the context" (CAP Code, section 02). CAP's advice on affiliate marketing applies this to affiliate links, including in emails (CAP: Online affiliate marketing).

Why it's worded and placed like that. Both rules put weight on readers seeing the disclosure when they see the link, which is why it sits right after the link rather than at the bottom. And CAP's affiliate advice says that "a generic and ambiguous disclaimer which indicates that the author 'may' receive a commission is unlikely to be acceptable", which is why it says "I earn" rather than "I may earn". You can reword it in your own voice, as long as it stays that clear and that close to the link.

Don't delete it from emails that link to an affiliate product. Check the rules of the affiliate program you've joined too: many have their own disclosure requirements.

This is general information, not legal advice. If you're unsure what applies to you, check with a qualified advisor.

What to do this week

• Read every email once, start to finish.
• Fix or delete any email marked NEEDS REVIEW, and remove the warning notes.
• Make any edits so it sounds like you.
• Save your lead magnet as a PDF and get its link.
• Build your sign-up page with the words from optin-page.md, asking for first name and email.
• Replace {{first_name}} and {{LEAD_MAGNET_LINK}} everywhere. Search for {{ to check none are left.
• Click your product link once to check it works.
• Build the automation: email 1 right away, then one email a day.
• If it's an affiliate product, check the disclosure line is there and close to the link.
• Sign up on your own page and watch the first two emails arrive.
• Decide when you'll send your regular email after the sequence ends, and put it on your calendar.